Beekeepers feel the sting of Timbercorp collapse

The Timbercorp collapse is hurting many rural businesses, including beekeepers

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A bee scientist says the collapse of Timbercorp is hurting the honey bee industry.

Timbercorp financed vast almond plantations around the New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian borders. But Timbercorp's administrators now say the crops are unprofitable.

Doug Somerville from the NSW Department of Primary Industries says it takes tens-of-thousands of beehives to pollinate the crops each year.

But he says this year Timbercorp has not asked beekeepers for their pollination services.

"Timbercorp are the biggest players in the almond industry in Australia and almond trees require honey bees to pollinate the crop," he said.

"None of the beekeepers that are involved in the pollination of that crop have been informed that their bees will be required this August.

"So essentially you're going to see a massive shortfall in the almond crop in Australia this year if those bees don't go onto that crop and the beekeepers involved won't get a pollination fee or a service fee either."

Mr Somerville says a number of beekeepers are reliant on the annual almond tree pollination.

"A lot of guys in Victoria and NSW and a few in Queensland have come to rely on providing bees, getting bees ready in the autumn for that August pollination job," he said.

"A lot of guys would have forfeited chasing honey flows, or built bees up, or bought bees in to make sure they had the numbers to do the pollination job.

"Now all of that's sort of no longer required up to this point in time. They'll have to sustain a loss as a result."

Mr Somerville says the move does not make sense considering the Timbercorp administrators is looking to sell-off assets.

"I don't quite understand the thinking of the whole process. The trees will be watered and kept alive but if they don't set a crop in August, they're not going to yield anything at Christmas to harvest over the summer," he said.